day 33: Produced Fruit

When we hire someone into a job we are basically crossing our fingers and hoping that the interview and assessment process works and that the person will be all that we want him/her to be. And, there is no day more so than someone’s first day when they will receive the highest regard and have the highest potential and expectations place on them. From day two on it will all be about the results they achieve and how they achieve those results. That is the way we are all evaluated at work. Someone got it mixed up when they thought that work was about having a place to go and do the least to be done to get by without regard to how others feel about how we do our job, get a paycheck and go home content and assured that the job will be there tomorrow and the next day. If there ever were those days, they are long gone. Today, we live in a performance-based work world where the expectations on us are raised each day. So, what you did yesterday is not good enough for tomorrow. This doesn’t have to be a negative. In fact, this is all within our control. Jesus gave us the parable in Matthew and its fruit. He was speaking of how we are to beware of false prophets and those who say they believe but don’t act or live so. He goes onto talk about how a tree that doesn’t produce fruit is chopped down and thrown into the fire. Yes, it is a reach to take this parable and bring it into the workplace, but part of our everyday way we live is how we live in our work and what we produce is under scrutiny in both the earthly and spiritual realms. The point here is that we have a choice in what kind of tree we want to be. We can choose to be a tree that produces fruit and results or we can choose to not be, and take the consequences. The fruit is not only "what" but also "how". And, so much of our spiritual journey on earth has to do with how we treat others and live our lives. It is the how as much as it is the what. Jesus says in Matthew 7:20 says that we can be identified by what it is we produce; “Yes, the way we identify a tree or a person is by the kind of fruit that is produced”. We have control over the type of fruit and results we will produce. While we have that control shouldn’t we do some self-introspection and pruning to be sure that we are producing at the level and abundance that we, and God, wants us to be producing?



Reference: Matthew 7:20 (New Living Testament)